Will Covid-19 finish off fur for good? Mutant coronavirus strains in Danish mink could be the final straw in luxury fashion’s reckoning with animal rights

Nov 15 , 2020

A model displays a fur collar at Fendi’s autumn/winter 19/20 show. The future of fur hangs in the balance after a nationwide cull of mink was ordered in Denmark after they were shown to be carrying a mutant strain of Covid-19. Photo: AFP

With Versace, Gucci and Prada already anti-fur, Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen’s call for a complete cull of the country’s mink – some 17 million animals – might just signal the beginning of the end for fur in fashion

Versace, Gucci and Prada have all joined the anti-fur movement in recent years. But the latest body blow to the industry has come courtesy of Covid-19, via a mutation of the virus found in mink.

The animals have emerged as highly efficient spreaders of coronaviruses, potentially complicating efforts to control a pandemic that’s already claimed more than a million human lives worldwide. Last week, Denmark revealed it had found a variant of the virus that officials fear could be so disruptive that it justified ordering the extermination of the country’s entire mink population – all 17 million animals.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has acknowledged that wiping out all breeding mink means the industry may not recover in Denmark, which is among the world’s biggest producers of the fur.

“My position remains that the mink have to be culled, because they pose a risk to human health,” she said in Copenhagen on Tuesday (November 10).

With mink farming potentially a complication in the fight against the coronavirus, the future of Europe’s fur industry seems less certain than ever. Outside Denmark, other mink-producing nations are watching closely as they figure out their next steps.

Mink in a fur farm in Gjoel, Denmark. The country plans to cull all mink in its fur farms to contain the spread of a coronavirus mutation. Photo: EPA-EFE

“We are alarmed by the news from Denmark,” said Nadezhda Zubkova, executive director for Russia’s National Association of Fur Animal Breeders. “But so far it’s about scientists’ assumptions.”

In Sweden, authorities say they have transmission of the virus among mink under control. But roughly a quarter of Swedish mink farms have had outbreaks, and the industry realises it can’t ignore the risks. Jorgen Martinsson, the head of Swedish Mink, said in a Facebook post that “we must never hide from the difficult questions.”

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